Walk the talk on Pakistan safe havens, Karzai asks Trump

KABUL (Pajhwok): Ex-president Hamid Karzai on Thursday welcomed US leader Donald Trump playing hardball with Pakistan on the issue of terrorist safe havens on its soil.

On January 1, the US president accused Pakistan of giving the Americans lies and deceit in return for billions of dollars in security and development assistance.

Speaking at the Raisina Dialogue in New Delhi, Karzai said it was after a long time that he endorsed the American view. “It is because of the truth that Donald Trump’s tweet portrayed.”

The US knew about the existence of terror sanctuaries in Pakistan, which used terrorism as an instrument of state policy, an Indian news channel quoted Karzai as saying.

“Now that the US has admitted terror sanctuaries exist, I hope they will act,” the former president remarked, He, however, explained he was not for war but for using other means of holding Pakistan accountable.

According to News 18, Karzai said former US vice-president Joe Biden once told him that “Pakistan is 50 times more important to us than you, Afghanistan".

The then head of state said: “That is the relationship we should focus on. Trump’s tweet is welcome but he must walk the talk.”

It was up to the United States to explain the rise of Daesh and extremism in Afghanistan, as it was a result of the Washington-Islamabad relationship.

He added: “Some of Afghanistan’s problems are foreign. Extremism is the product of US-Pakistan cooperation and Afghanistan has to face implications. The US must explain.”